The Big Circus

Hitchcock's old scriptwriter from Blackmail, Charles Bennett, worked on the screenplay of this pleasing big-top melodrama. Circus owner Mature is left bankrupt when his erstwhile partners walk out on him. He begs a bank loan and puts the show back on the road. But somebody is out to get him. The story is straggly but there are plenty of incidental pleasures: Peter Lorre does a turn as a clown, and matters close with a walk across Niagara Falls.